03/12/2010

Four years after the second 7 Dwarves instalment (between them, the adventures of these big "7 dwarves" garnered about 10m admissions in Germany), Warner is this week launching Otto's Eleven [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the new film written by and starring famous German comedian Otto Waalkes.

At over 60, the showman from Emden continues to play a central role in the films in which he stars (sometimes contributing to the screenwriting, directing and production), even to the point of lending them his name. For his latest parody, tackling a well-known Hollywood hit, he has reunited with his faithful co-screenwriter Bernd Eilert and the team at TransWaalFilm. Like the two 7 Dwarves instalments, Otto's Eleven is helmed by his friend Sven Unterwaldt.

The project, which started out as a joke, recounts the adventures of a group of rather eccentric friends who are quietly settled on an island in northern Germany. They have a family painting stolen and decide to get revenge on the art collector who has swindled them by luring him onto the island under the guise of a tourist visit. Co-produced by Hamburg’s TransWaalFilm and Munich-based Poppular Pictures, Otto's Eleven is also being released in Austria.

The other new German releases to have hit theatres yesterday are co-productions. First up is Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s Home for Christmas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bent Hamer
film profile], distributed by Pandora.

Meanwhile, Filmlichter has launched Jean-Claude Schlim’s drama House of Boys [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], co-produced by Cologne’s Elsani Film, Belgian company Banana Films and Luxembourg’s DeLux Productions. Set in the 1980s, it tells the story of a young man who wants to explore his homosexuality as far as Amsterdam’s most extravagant nightclubs and finds himself confronted with a new disease, AIDS.

Hawa Essuman’s Soul Boy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was co-produced by Kenya and Tom Tykwer for Berlin-based One Fine Day Films. It is distributed by X Verleih.

Audiences will also get the chance to discover Heidi Specogna’s documentary The Goalgetter’s Ship, about Nigerian footballer Jonathan Akpoborie’s use of a Danish ferry to transport child slaves. The film, produced by Teamworx and Swiss company Fama Film, is distributed by W-Film.

There are three other European titles in the line-up: Richard Berry’s French thriller 22 Bullets [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Wild Bunch), in which Jean Reno plays a retired gangster who is looking for revenge after being shot with 22 bullets; Hannes Holm’s Swedish film Wonderful and Loved by All (distribution: Projektor), about a 40-something actress with neither career nor family who claims to be an acrobat in order to land a role at Stockholm’s Royal Theatre; and Woody Allen’s US/Spanish co-production You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Concorde).

(Translated from French)